Tiktok Continues Push Alert Campaign Opposing House Bill Forcing Sale

TikTok is still using its platform to urge users to call Congress and oppose a bill that would force a sale of the app, or ban it.

TikTok has been sending push alerts in “waves” to users over age 18 across the country ever since last Thursday, urging them to call their lawmakers to “stop a TikTok ban.” The latest campaign was sent to smaller groups of users going out over the past several days and is continuing to go out, Alex Haurek, a TikTok spokesperson, told POLITICO.

These recent efforts follow a similar TikTok push alert sent last week on the day the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 50-0 to advance a bipartisan bill to force TikTok’s Beijing-based owner ByteDance to sell the app or face a ban on U.S. app stores.

Thousands of TikTok users, young and old, bombarded the phones of House lawmakers last Thursday. The effort appears to have had minimal effect, and the House is expected to pass the measure in an expedited suspension vote on Wednesday.

In a Sunday statement, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said TikTok and its alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party pose "a significant national security threat to the U.S.”

Pushing back since last week: “Since this rushed hearing, we’ve continued to educate our users about what’s happening and this legislation that would ban TikTok,” Alex Haurek, a TikTok spokesperson, told POLITICO.

There are a variety of alerts going out to certain users, with one saying, “If the House of Representatives vote to ban TikTok on Wednesday, the government will take away the community that you and millions of other Americans love.” Users can then enter their zip code to directly call their lawmakers.

On Monday, the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, whose leaders Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) authored the TikTok bill, posted on X that TikTok “is still lying to its users and using them to lobby Congress to benefit a foreign adversary— the CCP.”

New lobbying tactic: TikTok’s new tactic illustrates how the social media giant can quickly deploy its user base of 170 million Americans to do its bidding.

But House E&C Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) said last week that TikTok’s campaign “only exposed the degree in which TikTok can manipulate and target a message.”

Caleb Smith, a former longtime staffer for retired House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other Republican leaders, said TikTok’s sprawling user base gives its campaign “unprecedented reach” on Capitol Hill.

But Smith cautioned that overwhelming lawmakers with calls could backfire.

“It’s not a strategy to just create chaos,” Smith told POLITICO. “What does move members of Congress is when constituents call into their office with well-informed viewpoints over a longer period of time. But a barrage of not well-informed people expressing outrage is not a strategy.”

House moves full-steam ahead: The GOP-led House remains on track to pass the bill on Wednesday, despite former President Donald Trump opposing the legislation last Thursday.

Key senators appear open to taking up a version of the House bill. Senate Intelligence Committee leaders — Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — on Sunday seemed to support the bill, saying there are national security concerns with TikTok’s alleged ties to China.

The Biden administration has also worked with the bill’s House authors over the last six months to ensure it's legally sound. President Joe Biden said last Friday that he would sign the bill if it gets to his desk.